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While the GTA in general is not foreign to us, UrbanToronto spends most of its time considering developments in the core of the city, focusing on a lot of the tall, glamourous projects that continue to be added to our downtown skyline. Every so often we do like to remind ourselves however that those are not the only projects going on, and that the powerhouse that Toronto is covers a vast area and a wide range of experiences: you don't get a metropolitan area of over 5 million people all living in a dense downtown cluster.
VHL Developments is a company that few readers will know well yet, but the company has a successful two-tower and townhouse condominium project on Markham Road south of Sheppard called Markham Place built in the last few years, and now they are selling 2150 Condos on Lawrence Avenue East at Birchmount, while gearing up for more to come in Scarborough. These are not the first pieces of land most developers are jumping for, but VHL has an eye for properties that may not initially stand out but which have great potential for improvement, and which can therefore be great investments for all when handled properly.
2150 Condos will be built on a lot that was until recently a car dealership. Mostly parking lot, but at the corner of two major bus routes and close to rapid transit, this is the kind of land that the City of Toronto wants to see put to higher and better use. With Ontario’s Places To Go plan calling the shots on where development can occur, protecting farmland while welcoming the thousands of newcomers to the GTA every year, this is exactly the kind of place targeted for intensification, a word you hear a lot on UrbanToronto. Intensification is another thing we more often associate with the core, and it usually involves putting 40-storey or higher towers on postage stamp plots of land, divided up into the smaller units that we have come to expect with downtown living.
That kind of lifestyle is too cramped for many people however, as there are still those who want to be able to fit more into a bedroom than just a bed, and those who want their home to be somewhere where they can actually stretch their legs, so to speak. Toronto’s suburban areas offer land at reasonable enough cost that developers who find brownfield sites there can offer larger suites while keeping them affordable for a larger swath of the public. It’s a win-win-win for all involved: the suburbs are revitalized with the reinvestment, the influx of new residents improves the local economy on a long-term basis, and City services can be provided relatively inexpensively. It comes to this: everyone benefits from infill – the purchasers, the developers, the City – and just as when it happens in the inner city, we want to celebrate it when it happens in suburban areas too.
2150 Condos will consist of three towers, the first phase of which is the 19-storey north tower with 227 suites. The first phase will contain a swimming pool and whirlpool which will eventually be shared by all three phases. Architecture is by Mazen Alkhaddam, of Master Building Inc., while the Interior Designer is Sarah Barber of Barber Design Shop Inc. Outside, Landscape Architect Jonathan McKie, of M & M Design Consultants holds sway.
UrbanToronto will be back to talk with VHL Developments executive member Marc Freedman to hear about the company's philosophy and modus operandi, and to get a good look at the scale model and model suite. In the meantime UrbanToronto has a dataBase entry for the project that brims with large renderings and gives you all the information you need about the project, including contact info. You will find that linked below along with links to our associated forum threads if you would like to join in the discussion on this project.
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